INTRAMURAL BURIALS OF CHILDREN IN SETTLEMENTS OF THE FIRST THIRD OF THE II THOUS. BC IN THE SOUTHERN TRANS-URALS*

The article is devoted to a rare source for the Bronze Age of the Southern Trans - Urals-intramural burials of children on Sintashta and Petrovsky monuments. Analysis and interpretation of the material allowed us to suggest several explanatory models, one of which is related to the cult of fertility and ancestors, and the other - to the intra-family and sentimental aspects of the life of people of the Bronze Age.

Keywords: intramural children's burials, Bronze Age, Southern Trans-Urals, Sintashta culture, Petrovskaya culture.

Introduction

The tradition of burying the dead in buildings (residential or abandoned) is widespread in time and space. It is believed that the appearance of this one of the oldest forms of funeral rites marks the transition to a sedentary lifestyle and a productive economy (Antonova, 1990, p. 38). This tradition dates back to the Mesolithic period of the Middle East and is associated with the settlements of the first farmers [Ibid., p. 38; Scott, 1999, p. 95]. But while the custom of burying adults in a "home context" is mostly limited to the Mesolithic - Neolithic, intramural child burials were practiced in societies of various levels of complexity, including States.

In the Southern Urals, during the Bronze Age, children were usually buried in common cemeteries, making up a significant percentage of the dead [Berseneva, 2010]. Despite this, children's graves were also found in synchronous settlements. The tradition was probably introduced to this territory by the Sintashta population and developed in the subsequent Srubno-Alakul period. It is difficult to assess the spread of this custom, since only a few settlements were excavated in large areas and the materials of some of them were published unsatisfactorily. Nevertheless, such cases were not isolated (Alaeva, 1998) and represented an obvious exception to the general ritual practice.

The aim of this study is to introduce and interpret children's intramural burials of the first third of the second millennium BC.

* The work was carried out within the framework of the research project "Habitat and socio-cultural space of the Southern Urals and Trans-Urals in the Paleometallic era" and the integration project of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences "Culture, Society and man in the Paleometallic era (the Urals and Western Siberia)".

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1. Location of Sintashta and Petrovsky settlements where intramural children's burials were found.

on the territory of the Southern Trans-Urals*. Burials of children under the floors of buildings were found in all Sintashta settlements that were excavated in large areas: Arkaim, Ustye I** and Kamenny Ambar [Alaeva, 1998; Zdanovich, 1997, 2010; Koryakova et al., 2011]***, as well as in Petrovsky Kulevchi III [1). Children's burials were located at the entrance and near the walls of buildings (Arkaim, Ustye I, Kulevchi III), in a well (Arkaim), next to it in the center of the dwelling (Stone Barn).

Sources

Kamenny Ambar settlement. It had a long history of functioning. Stratigraphically and by radiocarbon dating, at least two periods of settlement have been identified: the Sintashta**** and the Srubno - Alakul period (XXI-XVII centuries BC) [Koryakova et al., 2011, pp. 72-73]. Five buildings dating back to the Sintashta period were partially or completely excavated, and only one of them (Building 2) was found to contain a child's grave (Fig.

Burial in building 2 (Fig. 2, B). It was found during the study of wells at a depth of 142 cm from zero under a layer of continental clay. Clearing revealed an obliquely lying wooden structure, oriented along the long axis along the CER - SWR line. In plan, it had a rectangular shape and was something like a shield: on two long blocks (boards?) shorter cross sections were used. The preserved length of the structure is from 80 to 110 cm, width 50, thickness 4 - 5 cm. The cross blocks slid down towards well 1a. The height difference between the shield edges was 35-44 - 0 cm. In the southern part of the structure (at its "top") A Sintashta-shaped vessel was found (Fig. 2, C), and some distance to the north - the baby's skull bones lying compactly (?), very thin, poor preservation. Several other skeletal fragments were found below: brittle fragments of ribs, possibly femurs or tibia. Even lower down the slope, at the northern end of the wooden structure, an altar consisting of the skull and limb bones of a sheep was cleared at a depth of 177 cm from zero [Ibid., Fig.7]. The deceased baby, judging by the position of its skull, was oriented with its head towards the South-West. There was no surviving accompanying inventory, with the exception of the vessel. The wooden shield was an overlap of the grave pit, as some wood fibers were located on top of the skull bones. Apparently, the burial was made in the Sintashta period in the floor of building 2. The depth from its floor could be approximately 60 - 70 cm. Then the pit was wrapped with clay. The floor of the later building 3, which destroyed the Sintashta layer in this place, was located 10-15 cm above the burial. It is difficult to judge with certainty the ratio of this burial site and well 1a. It could have been arranged earlier than the well or simultaneously with it, but it is unlikely that later, because during the ruining of the latter, movements in the nearby ground also affected the burial, which moved down in the direction of the well. The stratigraphic situation does not allow us to judge the order of burial and construction of building 2. It is only obvious that

* Intramural burials of the later Srubno-Alakul period were mostly performed outside of the residential area, in so-called ash pits, and, of course, deserve separate consideration.

** On the Estuary, children's burials correspond to the Petrovsky habitat horizon.

*** The exception is Sintashta, where the pace of rescue operations did not seem to contribute to the quality of excavations.

**** Despite the presence of Petrine-type ceramics, objects that are confidently interpreted as Petrine have not yet been identified.

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2. Plans of the fortified settlement Kamenny Ambar( A), the children's burial site in Building 2 (B), and the ceramic vessel from it (C) (Koryakova et al., 2011). 1-stones; 2-large pits; 3-wells; 4 - holes from pillars; 5-localization of children's burial; 6-location of cranial bones in the burial.

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3. Plan of the Ustye settlement I. 1-wells; 2-localization of children's burials.

the latter was at least residential after the construction of the burial. It is also possible to create it when you bookmark buildings.

Ustye I settlement (Fig. 3). Two main construction horizons are recorded here - Sintashtinsky and Petrovsky. Later, the eastern periphery of this monument was developed by the Alakul-log cabin population (Ustye settlement of the III late Bronze Age).* [Vinogradov, 1988]. Partially or completely excavated 13 residential premises, attributed by the author to the Petrine period**. Children's burials were found in two ditches of buildings and, probably, in the area of a ground structure.

Burial 3 (Fig. 4, A). It was first recorded at the level of the mainland and was an oval-shaped depression measuring 70x48 cm, 20 cm deep. The walls dropped steeply to the bottom (+10 cm). Filling - gray ashy ground. In the north-western part of the pit, a vessel of the Petrovsky type was found at the bottom. Just to the east of it were the bones of a highly fragmented skull of a child aged approx. 1 year***. Redeposited remains of a postcranial skeleton were found in the central part of the pit near the bottom. The deceased, judging by the location of the cranial bones, was oriented with his head to the NW. It was not possible to determine the position of the child's body in the grave pit.

Features of the shape and ornamentation of the vessel made it possible to identify it as Petrovsky, and the burial site can be attributed to the Petrovsky period of the history of the fortified settlement Ustye I. Burial 3 was most likely located under some kind of light canopy related to room 2, since here pits from pillars and a depression with Peter's vessel in it were revealed. Unfortunately, the cultural layer on this site has suffered greatly from plowing, and it is not possible to speak confidently about the layer that overlaps the burial site.

Burial 8 (Fig. 4, B). It was found in the pit of Petrovsky room 9 on a sloping site from east to west. In the immediate vicinity of the entrance to the building from the side of the inner "street", at the eastern corner of the room, under a layer of clay floor covering, a pit of rounded outlines measuring 105x115 cm was cleared, oriented along the CER - YUZ line. Since the pit was located on an inclined surface, its south-south-eastern edge was first recorded at a depth of +10 cm, and the opposite, north-north-western edge - only at a depth of - 12 cm. The walls of the pit dropped steeply enough to the bottom, which was fixed at 42 ... 44-4 cm. Thus, the depth of the grave from the level of the first fixation was from 30 to 54 cm. The pit was filled with a uniform gray ashy soil.

* Several more infant burials were discovered here in the so-called ash pit.

** N. B. Vinogradov applies the term "room" to the building elements of the inner site, since none of them is located separately. According to the excavations, the rooms had a single roof, adjacent walls, as well as passages fixed to varying degrees from one to the other. The construction of the inner site itself is being reconstructed as two arrays of rooms under a single roof, located closely along the inner side of the bypass defensive wall.

*** Hereafter, the age determinations were made by E. P. Kitov (IEA RAS).

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4. Plans of children's burials 3 (A), 8 (B). 9 (C) and ceramic vessels from them. Ustye I settlement

In the bottom part of the filling and at the bottom, the remains of the skeletons of two children were found, buried not simultaneously, but with a certain time interval, one after the other. The first person buried here was an infant aged 0-6 months, most likely a newborn (Figure 5). The extensive burrow partially destroyed its skeleton. The pelvic and femoral bones are missing. The bones of the hands are partially lost, others are displaced. The skull is fragmented. The position of the buried person at the time of burial cannot be reliably described. However, the in situ tibia of the child allows us to say with a certain degree of probability that the deceased was laid on the right side, with his head on the CER. At the level of the tibia was a fragmented ceramic vessel. After quite a long time, a second child, aged approx., was buried in the same pit. 1 year old. In this case, the position of the buried person can be established confidently: on the left side, with the head on the CER, the hands of both hands were located in the pelvis, the legs bent at the knees-on a vessel from the inventory of the first child. The skull is highly fragmented. The ceramic vessel placed in front of the deceased's face was placed on the skull bones of the first child.

Burial 9 (see Fig. 4, C). It was found in the pit of room 10, directly at its north-eastern side. From a depth of +25 cm, a circular pit extending from north to south with a protrusion in the southern side was recorded. Its absolute dimensions are 90x70 cm. The main soil of the filling is gray ashy, only in the bottom part there was a thin (7 - 8 cm) layer of humusized clay-sand. Taking into account its thickness, the total depth of the pit from the level of the first fixation was approx. 35 cm. On the surface of the humusized clay-sandy soil, at the level from 0 to +5 cm, the skeletal remains of the child were cleared: three fragments of ribs (?) and a small bone fragment that was badly destroyed. On the east side of them was the Peter's vessel. The burial is associated with the functioning of room 10 and, judging by the appearance of the vessel, refers to the Petrovsky period of the history of the fortified settlement of Ustye I.

Fig. 5. Children's burial 8 at the Ustye I settlement.

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6. Plans of the Kulevchi settlement III (A), children's burials in buildings 4 (B), 5 (C, D) and ceramic vessels from them. 1-well; 2 - holes from pillars; 3-large pits; 4-location of children's bones in burials.

The order of layers at the bottom of the pit can be explained by the fact that the grave probably overlapped and partially cut through an earlier depression, since the array of Peter's rooms on this monument overlapped with the Sintashta development of the site.

Kulevchi settlement III (Fig. 6, A). Two construction horizons are recorded on this monument - Petrovsky and Alakulsky (Vinogradov, 1982, p. 96). The remains of seven dwellings were studied, five of which are associated with the Petrine period. Children's burials were found in two of these buildings (N 4 and 5).

Burial in dwelling 4 (Fig. 6, B). When disassembling the cultural layer from a depth of 15 cm, a rectangular depression with rounded corners, measuring 85x60 cm, was observed, oriented along the line of the ZSZ - VYV. The south-west wall sloped down to the bottom more steeply than the north-east wall. The pit is buried in the mainland by 30 cm. The filling was a ground mixed as a result of rodent activity, consisting of gravel, sand, clay and ash. A fragment of an animal's tubular bone and two horse teeth were found in the pit. At the bottom, at a depth of 33 ... 35 cm, in the north-western and south-eastern corners, two vessels were found, one of which is of the Petrovsky type. Despite the fact that the bone remains of the child were not preserved, the size of the pit and the presence of vessels allow us to interpret it as a child burial.

Burial 1 in dwelling 5 (Fig. 6, C). Near the middle of the south-eastern wall, a pit of sub - rectangular outlines, measuring 70x52 cm, oriented along the line of the ZSZ - DITCH, was found under the floor at a depth of 60 cm. The walls descended rather steeply to the bottom, marked at a depth of 82 cm. The pit was filled with mixed soil. At the bottom, in the northwest corner, the remains of the child's skull bones and a jar-type vessel were found.

Burial 2 in dwelling 5 (Fig. 6, D). Under the south-western wall of the structure, closer to the south-eastern corner, at the level of the mainland (depth - 80 cm), the outlines of a pit of a sub-rectangular shape, strongly rounded on the north-western side, are revealed. Dimensions 68x45 cm, orientation along the ZSZ - VUV line. The western wall sloped steeply to the bottom, the rest more gently. At a depth of 95 cm, the pit acquired an oval shape, orientation along the 3 - B line and dimensions of 56x26 cm; filling - mixed soil. The bottom is fixed at a depth of 97 cm. In the western part of the pit, small fragments of the child's cranial and tubular bones and a Petrine-type vessel were found on it.

In the settlement of Kulevchi III, children's burials were located under the clay coating of the floor of dwellings, which also indicates the possibility of burying children both during the construction of structures and during their operation.

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Discussion

Excavations of large areas of Bronze Age settlements and publications of materials from the studied monuments made it possible to estimate at least approximately the spread of the tradition of intramural burials for children in the Southern Trans-Urals. Taking into account the unpublished burials in Arkaim (Zdanovich, 1997, p.62), there are at least ten Sintashta and Petrovsky burials. At the same time, only one thing can be considered Sintashta proper so far - the Kamenny Ambar settlement. It is characterized by a significant depth from the floor level of the dwelling (70 cm), the presence of a wooden structure and an altar, and was located in the center of the building near the well. Peter's burials were arranged in small pits, relatively shallow (20 - 30 cm deep, maximum 50 cm) and contained only dishes. Their location tends towards the entrances, walls, and corners of rooms. It should be noted that in all cases the rite of intramural burials generally corresponds to the extramural one, including the orientation of the deceased.

Unfortunately, gender and age definitions are not made for all buried people. In shallow graves at the settlement of Kulevchi III, only rot from the skull bones remained, and in one case the bones were not preserved at all. Probably, those buried were barely born babies. The same situation, despite the substantial depth of the pit, was recorded in the settlement of Kamenny Ambar. In the burials of Ustya I, two children aged approx. 1 year old, one newborn, and the bones of the fourth almost completely decayed. Thus, it can be stated with a high degree of confidence that children aged from 0 to 6 months predominated among those buried.

The origins of the rite in question in the Southern Urals are as mysterious as the origin of the Sintashta culture itself. Looking to the west, southwest, and south in search of analogies takes us very far not only geographically, but also chronologically-at least in the early Bronze Age of agricultural cultures in the Balkans and Central Asia [Mishina, 2010; Khronologiya..., 2005, pp. 324-325]. Oddly enough, intramural burials closest to the Syntashta-Petrovsky horizon can be found only in the Altai (Kiryushin, Maloletko, and Tishkin, 2004, p.80-83; Kiryushin, Tishkin, and Grushin, 2011, p. 25). Excavations of the Elunin settlement of Berezovaya Luka (XXII - XX centuries BC) [Kiryushin, Tishkin, Grushin, 2011, p.76] revealed at least nine children's burials. Three were arranged in the corners of the building 1, one outside, but near its wall, and another on the eastern periphery of the settlement in the center of the proposed ground construction 4. Dishes were missing in the burials, but bones of small cattle and in one case a lead earring were found. The age of children is defined in the range of 0-4 months. The rest of the burials were located in the interstitial space in a redeposited state and in an ash pit. The authors note that the signs of the rite generally correspond to the extramural method of burial adopted in the Elunin culture, but they interpret burials in buildings as deliberate infanticide [Kiryushin, Maloletko, Tishkin, 2004, p.222].

In the post-Sintashta period, children's burials in settlements can be found among materials from Late Bronze Age cultures both on both sides of the Urals, and in Western Siberia and Kazakhstan (Tkachev, 1999, p. 2-3; Chicha..., 2004; Obydennoyu, Shuteleva, and Shcherbakov, 2002; Nelin, 2004, p. 152) (see fig. See also: [Novikova, 2011]).

Over the years of research, many interpretations of the intramural rite have been proposed based on historical and ethnographic sources (see, for example: [Alekshin, 1986, p. 152-153; Antonova, 1990, p. 86; Scott, 1999, p. 99-102; Boric and Stefanovic, 2004, p. 541-543; Beilke-Voigt, 2008, p. 26; Mishina, 2010, p. 140; Novikova, 2011]). In general, the search for explanations for the burial of children in residential space is conducted in two main directions. One group of versions suggests making a sacrifice when laying a building and the associated infanticide, which can be, however, two sides of the same coin. Other hypotheses are based on the assumption of the natural death of children, and burial in houses is explained by religious reasons or more mundane intentions of adults, depending on the context. Recently, children's intramural burials are increasingly interpreted in this way. Although the practice of infanticide is well documented in written and ethnographic sources, it is very difficult to prove the deliberate murder of a child using archaeological methods. Therefore, preference is given to hypotheses based, for example, on the idea of "reviving deceased infants" in the same family or preserving the fertility of women living in the house (see: [Alekshin, 1986, p.152; Scott, 1999, p. 105-107; Beilke - Voigt, 2004]). In addition, burials under the floors of dwellings are increasingly associated with manifestations of ancestral cults and fertility [Bibikov, 1953, pp. 197-198; Scott, 1999, p.102]. So, from the point of view of researchers of the Mesolithic and Neolithic Balkans, the purpose of these burials could be, for example," to preserve the reproductive capacity of the structure as a place of residence of a family (lineage) " (Boric and Stefanovic, 2004, p. 541). Probably, fertility was somehow connected in the minds of people with the place of their residence. The idea of the connection between birth and death, which is central to the cult of fertility, is nowhere more evident than at the burial of a newly born child.

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Interpretation

Returning to the burials in Sintashta and Petrovsky buildings, we should probably reject the version of "construction victims". There is no evidence of intentional killing of children. There is also no indisputable reason to believe that the graves were constructed during construction. Only one thing is clear: the dwellings were functioning at a time when the children were already buried under the floor. The floor covering of border 8 on the settlement of Ustye I, which was clearly opened for the purpose of preening, may prove this. Children's graves are not found in every building. Their context is indicative of the care shown by adults: children were placed in a conventional position, accompanied by dishes, and in one case a sacrificial animal. In addition, it should be noted that most children's burials were located near corners, pit walls, or entrances to buildings (passages from room to room), but in places of the least traffic, which can be observed on other monuments of various periods and regions [Chicha..., 2004, p. 181, 199; Mishina, 2010, p. 141; Kiryushin, Maloletko, and Tishkin, 2004, p. 217; Khronologiya..., 2005, p. 325]. Traditionally, these places were considered more "clean" than others (Beilke-Voigt, 2008, p. 28). Different ages of children, the example of consecutive burial in the same pit of two individuals-a newborn and a one-year-old-can also serve as confirmation of the hypothesis of nonviolent death.

Why were children buried in the family space? For the Sintashta and Petrovsky societies, this practice was not common. Perhaps unusual actions were dictated by a situation that developed from time to time, for example, the loss of a large number of children, animals, or other vital motives. Care for the preservation or restoration of fertility (people, livestock) could play a major role in such rites, even if children were deliberately killed due to emergency circumstances. But even in this case, according to the ideology of fertility (and its powerful influence is reflected in the sacrificial complexes accompanying those buried in extramural cemeteries [Zdanovich, 2005]), the death of a child can be considered as a symbol of rebirth and can be used to maintain relations between the living and the dead, people and deities.

A more prosaic explanation is that the burial of infants and very young children was probably an intra-family affair and did not require compliance with mandatory norms and rituals, like the burial of adults or older children. Some families wanted their children to remain "with them" after death. This custom of leaving dead infants in a "domestic" context has survived for centuries (Baiburin, 1983; Boric and Stefanovic, 2004; Mishina, 2010). An indirect confirmation of this can be the fact that children's burials were found on the Sintashta and Petrovsky monuments not in all dwellings.

In conclusion, I would like to note that, despite the modest sample, the topic raised is extremely relevant, since it directly addresses the issues of the origin of the Sintashta and Petrovsky cultures, and also allows us to explore important aspects of the worldview of their carriers. We encourage our colleagues to publish materials related to this rare phenomenon in the Urals and Western Siberia.

Acknowledgements

The authors express their sincere gratitude to E. P. Kitov (IEA RAS) for determining the age of death of the buried and I. P. Alayeva (ChSPU) for their help in collecting information.

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